Only if you really want to be. Much like you don't have to celebrate some good thing that happened to some other people ages ago, you don't have to mourn some bad thing that happened to other people ages ago. I think there's a problem with thinking of the participants of war as Us and Them, especially when it was so remote that nobody you know has a grandfather who knew someone who was in it.
I didn't mean it seriously. I think the idea of us having colonies that have no representation but who we tax is pretty abhorrent. OTOH it seems odd that American independence from us is a big issue over there, but something we barely remember over here. I guess Britain wants to forget it's imperial past.
it seems odd that American independence from us is a big issue over there, but something we barely remember over here
Not all that odd, surely? The effect on them was that they gained freedom and self-determination and completely reorganised their government; the effect on us wasn't nearly that profound. It doesn't seem unreasonable at all that it was more significant to them than to us.
(Also, we have quite a few former colonies. If we commemorated the date that each one became independent of us, we'd be pretty busy, but each former colony only has one date to celebrate!)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 02:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 03:02 pm (UTC)So yes, don't feel obligated to be sad.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 03:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 04:23 pm (UTC)Not all that odd, surely? The effect on them was that they gained freedom and self-determination and completely reorganised their government; the effect on us wasn't nearly that profound. It doesn't seem unreasonable at all that it was more significant to them than to us.
(Also, we have quite a few former colonies. If we commemorated the date that each one became independent of us, we'd be pretty busy, but each former colony only has one date to celebrate!)
no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 04:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 04:27 pm (UTC)If anything brits say they celebrate "Good riddance uppity colonials day" or "Why isn't anyone replying to my emails day" :)
no subject
Date: 2008-07-05 01:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-05 01:58 am (UTC)"4th of July, British Thanksgiving" on the back it said "(we didn't want you anyways)"
no subject
Date: 2008-07-05 06:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 03:14 pm (UTC)Happy Broken HTML Markup Day!
>;->no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 04:15 pm (UTC)